There is known from EP-A-0420921 an apparatus for automatic payment in which a separator disk receives on its upper surface the coins or tokens to be separated and comprises at its periphery recesses adapted each to receive a coin or token. To this end, the recesses open through the upper surface of the disk. They also open opposite a stationary peripheral wall forming the lateral guide wall for the coins or tokens driven in rotation by the recesses. Along this path, the coins slide on a fixed conveying surface. They pass through the field of action of a detector. They then reach an opening for passage toward a circular display situated beside the rotatable disk. As a function of the result of the detection effected by the detector, the passage opening is configured according to one or the other of two different configurations directing the coins or tokens either toward a peripheral compartment of the display or toward a central compartment. There are three central compartments and three peripheral compartments. When one presentation region comprising a central compartment and a peripheral compartment is in position to receive the coins or tokens coming from the separator disk through the passage opening, another presentation region comprising another peripheral compartment and another central compartment is in a presentation position, in which the coins or tokens corresponding to a preceding payment are visible to users, while a third presentation region, comprising the third peripheral compartment and the third central compartment, is located in a position for transmitting the coins or tokens toward a final station, for example a storage box of the coins or tokens, a device to return the rejected coins or tokens, et cetera.
On the disk, a knockdown bar is adapted to prevent the superposed coins from reaching the detector. But as the knockdown bar must be placed a sufficient distance from the conveying surface to permit the passage of the thickest coins, this bar is in certain cases incapable of preventing the simultaneous passage of two thin coins which will become lodged in the same opening. In any event, if the second coin extends above the upper surface of the disk, it is dangerous to attempt to dislodge it by the knockdown bar because that risks causing a blockage and damage. This problem cannot be solved by making the disk thinner, because that would permit a thin coin to pass between the upper surface of the disk and the knockdown bar.
Other disturbances in the rotation of the disk can arise, particularly if foreign bodies have entered the chamber in which the disk turns. These foreign bodies can become lodged between the disk and the knockdown bar, or below the detector, between the disk and the bottom wall, or even in the movable members defining the configuration of the passage opening. In such a case, cleaning the known apparatus can consume a certain time and accordingly give rise to undesirable disturbance of the proper operation of the entire payout station.
It can happen that certain coins will be questionable, which is to say that the response of the detector to the passage of the coin differs only very little from the response corresponding to a genuine coin. Such a coin can be rejected by the apparatus. This give rise to an unnecessary disturbance of the operation if in fact it involves for example a very worn but still genuine coin.
Finally, in the known apparatus, the presentation device is fairly bulky because its diameter is greater than that of the separation device and it is necessary accordingly more than to double the area necessary to position side-by-side the two devices, relative to that which would be required by a single separation device.